Alexandra's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 30 Apr 2025 22:16:50 -0700 60 Alexandra's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[First-Time Caller (Heartstrings, #1)]]> 213243908 A hopeless romantic meets a jaded radio host in this cozy, Sleepless in Seattle-inspired love story from beloved author B.K. Borison.

Aiden Valentine has a secret: he's fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore's romance hotline, that's a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls in to the station asking for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden and Heartstrings into the limelight.

Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. She has a good job; an incredible family; and a smart, slightly devious kid. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life-or lack thereof—she begins to question if she's as happy as she thought. Maybe a little more romance wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Everyone wants Lucie to find her happy ending... even the handsome, temperamental man calling the shots. But when sparks start to fly behind the scenes, Lucie must make the final call between the radio-sponsored happily ever after or the man in the headphones next to her.]]> 448 B.K. Borison 0593641191 Alexandra 5 2025-releases 4.05 2025 First-Time Caller (Heartstrings, #1)
author: B.K. Borison
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/30
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year]]> 199531989 Knives Out gets a rom-com twist in this rivals-to-lovers Christmas romance-mystery from New York Times bestselling author Ally Carter

The bridge is out. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room three days before Christmas.

Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt:
She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery.
He’s Mr. Big-Time Thriller Guy.

She hates his guts.

He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.)

But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.

That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone.

She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?

As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth—and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.

Assuming they don’t kill each other first.]]> 293 Ally Carter 0063276682 Alexandra 4 3.92 2024 The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
author: Ally Carter
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/27
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves:
review:

]]> The Ex Hex (The Ex Hex, #1) 56554626 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins, writing as Erin Sterling, casts a spell with a spine-tingling romance full of wishes, witches, and hexes gone wrong.

Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths…and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows she shouldn’t use her magic this way, but with only an “orchard hayride� scented candle on hand, she isn’t worried it will cause him anything more than a bad hair day or two.

That is until Rhys Penhallow, descendent of the town’s ancestors, breaker of hearts, and annoyingly just as gorgeous as he always was, returns to Graves Glen, Georgia. What should be a quick trip to recharge the town’s ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival turns disastrously wrong. With one calamity after another striking Rhys, Vivi realizes her silly little Ex Hex may not have been so harmless after all.

Suddenly, Graves Glen is under attack from murderous wind-up toys, a pissed off ghost, and a talking cat with some interesting things to say. Vivi and Rhys have to ignore their off the charts chemistry to work together to save the town and find a way to break the break-up curse before it’s too late.]]> 308 Erin Sterling 006302747X Alexandra 4 3.46 2021 The Ex Hex (The Ex Hex, #1)
author: Erin Sterling
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/25
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Problematic Summer Romance (Not in Love, #2)]]> 228691356 What is wrong meets what feels right in this romance set in Italy by the New York Times bestselling author of Deep End.

Maya Killgore is twenty-three and still in the process of figuring out her life.

Conor Harkness is thirty-eight, and Maya cannot stop thinking about him.

It’s such a cliché, it almost makes her heart implode: older man and younger woman; successful biotech guy and struggling grad student; brother’s best friend and the girl he never even knew existed. As Conor loves to remind her, the power dynamic is too imbalanced. Any relationship between them would be problematic in too many ways to count, and Maya should just get over him. After all, he has made it clear that he wants her gone from his life.

But not everything is as it seems—and clichés sometimes become plot twists.

When Maya’s brother decides to get married in Taormina, she and Conor end up stuck together in a romantic Sicilian villa for over a week. There, on the beautiful Ionian coast, between ancient ruins, delicious foods, and natural caves, Maya realizes that Conor might be hiding something from her. And as the destination wedding begins to erupt out of control, she decides that a summer fling might be just what she needs—even if it’s a problematic one.]]> 416 Ali Hazelwood Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.62 2025 Problematic Summer Romance (Not in Love, #2)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> If I Have to Be Haunted 199204322 Your first love will always haunt you�

The most haunting, heartwarming debut of 2023. Perfect for fans of strong female leads and supernatural stakes in Buffy, with all the sweetness and romance of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

Cara’s just trying to stay on top of all her classes, excel at her extracurriculars, and prepare for college � which means not speaking to the dead, an ability she inherited from her grandmother. Ghosts are trouble, and Cara doesn’t need to add their problems to her own.

But then she stumbles upon the body of Zach � the super popular but very newly dead high school golden boy � in the woods, and guess what? He wants her to resurrect him.

Cue trouble.

Miranda Sun’s debut touches on the power and conflicts in a mother-daughter love, first romance � and finding your place in the world while honouring your culture. Full of heart, humour and thrills, If I Have to be Haunted will put a spell on you.]]> 371 Miranda Sun 0008612404 Alexandra 0 currently-reading 3.54 2023 If I Have to Be Haunted
author: Miranda Sun
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Ex Vows 199926331 Estranged exes must stick close together to save their best friend’s wedding after a string of disasters in this swoony and steamy second-chance romance.

Georgia Woodward lives by her lists, none more so than the one about her ex, Eli Mora. It’s full of the ironclad dos and don’ts they’ve been following since she returned to the Bay Area after their cataclysmic breakup five years ago.

With the wedding of their mutual best friend, Adam, looming, and them about to step into their roles as best woman and man, Georgia’s never needed it more. She refuses to threaten their tight-knit friend group with her messy—and still very present—feelings. The rules on that list will keep her cool, calm, and compartmentalized.

What’s not on her list? Eli arriving from New York with a new rule-breaking attitude or the all-inclusive venue burning to the ground, leaving the bride and groom in dire straits. Nor does she anticipate Adam asking her and Eli to help him make a miracle happen. Together.

As Georgia and Eli rush up to Napa Valley to pull off the perfect wedding, their old chemistry comes back in technicolor. Somewhere between cake tastings gone wrong, disastrous DJ auditions, and Eli’s heated attention, Georgia starts recognizing the man she fell in love with before. And if she lets herself break her rules, she might find what they’re building isn’t the something old that ruined them—it’s a chance at something new.]]> 399 Jessica Joyce 0593548434 Alexandra 0 to-read 4.12 2024 The Ex Vows
author: Jessica Joyce
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Enchantra (Wicked Games, #2) 217182344 Ready or Not meets Throne of the Fallen in a spicy, enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance, where an Italian getaway turns deadly after a young woman is trapped in her host family's cursed game.

Ready or not, the game has begun.

Genevieve Grimm has felt adrift ever since her sister became the head of the family. So when a mysterious friend of their mother's invites her to Italy, she accepts. She arrives at his grand palace, expecting passion and magic, decadence and luxury... perhaps even a midnight ball.

She doesn't expect the owner's ruthlessly handsome son to slam the door in her face. Rowin Silver is tall, dark, and exceptionally rude, and invitation or not, he demands Genevieve leave and never come back. But Genevieve follows nobody's orders, especially those of arrogant rich boys. She slips inside—and immediately discovers her mistake.

Rowin and his family are caught in an insidious game of hide and seek, where only one can win. The rest will be trapped in Hell... until the competition begins again.

Genevieve must either join the hunt or forfeit any hope of escaping. But to her dismay, her best chance of survival lies with Rowin. Since lovers may play as a pair, Rowin and Genevieve agree to form an alliance under the guise of a fake courtship. However, as they race through the game's elaborate labyrinth, trapped among gleaming gold and shining marble, their loathing gives way to irresistible attraction. Only Rowin is keeping secrets, especially when it comes to his ruthless family, and Genevieve can't help but wonder if she's trapped in two treacherous games: Enchantra and the one Rowin is playing with her heart.]]> 448 Kaylie Smith 1538770806 Alexandra 4 2025-releases 4.37 2025 Enchantra (Wicked Games, #2)
author: Kaylie Smith
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: 2025-releases
review:

]]> But Not Too Bold 204254235 The Shape of Water meets Mexican Gothic in this sapphic monster romance novella wrapped in gothic fantasy trappings

The old keeper of the keys is dead, and the creature who ate her is the volatile Lady of the Capricious House⁠―Anatema, an enormous humanoid spider with a taste for laudanum and human brides.

Dália, the old keeper’s protégée, must take up her duties, locking and unlocking the little drawers in which Anatema keeps her memories. And if she can unravel the crime that led to her predecessor's death, Dália might just be able to survive long enough to grow into her new role.

But there’s a gaping hole in Dália’s plan that she refuses to see: Anatema cannot resist a beautiful woman, and she eventually devours every single bride that crosses her path.]]> 112 Hache Pueyo 1250910536 Alexandra 0 to-read 3.97 2022 But Not Too Bold
author: Hache Pueyo
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kingdom of Claw (The Ashen Series, #2)]]> 213034811 Return to the Kingdom of Íseldur, where enemies become lovers and dark secrets hide around each corner, the second novel in the Ashen series.

In the aftermath of a harrowing journey, Silla Nordvig’s dreams of a simple life have been shattered. Beaten, betrayed, and reeling from the revelation of her true name, she flees Kopa with Reynir Galtung, ruthless leader of the Bloodaxe Crew. But when they're forced into hiding together, Silla soon discovers that Rey has been keeping secrets of his own.

Stuck in a shield-home with the murderous man she thought she knew, Silla forms a new master the magic flowing through her veins to save her sister. But before she can do that, Silla must face her most formidable opponent yet—her own inner demons.

Saga Volsik has nothing to lose. They’ve murdered her family. Stolen her throne. And now they expect her to marry their son, but not if she can dismantle Queen Signe’s plans first. The only problem? The handsome Zagadkian dignitary who knows far too many of her secrets.

Silla and Saga will need to find the strength to step into their destiny and stop chaos from sweeping across the land. Meanwhile, dark threads continue to weave themselves through Íseldur as magic long thought dead begins to wake.]]> 656 Demi Winters 0593975634 Alexandra 3 2025-releases 4.47 2024 Kingdom of Claw (The Ashen Series, #2)
author: Demi Winters
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Reckless (The Powerless Trilogy, #2)]]> 186631952
More about the destinies of these beloved characters coming soon!]]> 377 Lauren Roberts 1665955430 Alexandra 3 4.12 2024 Reckless (The Powerless Trilogy, #2)
author: Lauren Roberts
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Passion Project 203237161
If your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life, Bennet Taylor is failing miserably . . . with a big emphasis on the miserable. Where’s that zest she keeps hearing about? She’s a temp worker in New York City with no direction, no future, and no social life. And at the painful center of this listlessness is grief over the death of her first love.

When Bennet runs into Henry Adams just hours after standing him up for a first date, she makes an alcohol-fueled confession: She’s not ready to date. In fact, it’s been years since she felt passion for something. Not even pottery, or organized sports—not anything. Rather than leaving her to ruminate, Henry jumps at the opportunity for adventure: Bennet needs to find a passion for life, and Henry will help her find it. Every Saturday, they’ll try something new in New York City. As friends, of course.

As their “passion project� continues, the pair tackle everything from carpentry to tattooing to rappelling off skyscrapers, and Bennet feels her guarded exterior ebbing away. But as secrets surface, Bennet has to decide what she wants, and if she’s truly ready to move on. With emotional resonance and sparkling banter, Passion Project is a fun, flirty, thoughtful story of finding a spark—and igniting happiness.]]> 368 London Sperry 0143138561 Alexandra 0 to-read 3.95 2025 Passion Project
author: London Sperry
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization]]> 59808487 Bringing his cosmic perspective to civilization on Earth, Neil deGrasse Tyson shines new light on the crucial fault lines of our time—war, politics, religion, truth, beauty, gender, and race—in a way that stimulates a deeper sense of unity for us all.

In a time when our political and cultural views feel more polarized than ever, Tyson provides a much-needed antidote to so much of what divides us, while making a passionate case for the twin chariots of enlightenment—a cosmic perspective and the rationality of science.

After thinking deeply about how science sees the world and about Earth as a planet, the human brain has the capacity to reset and recalibrates life’s priorities, shaping the actions we might take in response. No outlook on culture, society, or civilization remains untouched.

With crystalline prose, Starry Messenger walks us through the scientific palette that sees and paints the world differently. From insights on resolving global conflict to reminders of how precious it is to be alive, Tyson reveals, with warmth and eloquence, an array of brilliant and beautiful truths that apply to us all, informed and enlightened by knowledge of our place in the universe.]]> 271 Neil deGrasse Tyson 1250861500 Alexandra 5 4.09 2022 Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization
author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Be the Love You Seek: Break Cycles, Find Peace, and Heal Your Relationships]]> 128579344 304 Nicole LePera 0063267756 Alexandra 0 4.15 2023 How to Be the Love You Seek: Break Cycles, Find Peace, and Heal Your Relationships
author: Nicole LePera
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/10
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Role Playing 63843397
Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.

When they finally meet face to face―after a rocky, shocking start―the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.

Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?]]> 331 Cathy Yardley 1662503989 Alexandra 0 to-read 3.92 2023 Role Playing
author: Cathy Yardley
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Ladies in Hating 222376849 A pair of Gothic novelists trade rivalry for love in this swoony, steamy, sapphic Regency by USA Today bestselling author Alexandra Vasti.

Celebrated authoress Lady Georgiana Cleeve has achieved fame and fortune. Unfortunately, she’s also acquired an the enigmatic Lady Darling, whose spine-tingling plots appear to be pulled straight from Georgiana’s own manuscripts. What’s a stubborn, steely writer to do? Unmask her rival, of course.

But unmasking doesn’t go according to plan—because Lady Darling is actually Cat Lacey, the butler’s daughter and object of Georgiana’s very secret, very embarrassing teenage infatuation.

Cat Lacey has spent a decade clawing her family out of poverty. The last thing she needs is to be distracted by the stunning(ly pretentious) Lady Georgiana Cleeve. But Cat can’t seem to escape her infuriatingly beautiful rival—including at the eerie manor where they both plan to set their next books. The plot unexpectedly thickens, however, when the novelists find themselves trapped in the manor together. In between ghostly moans and spectral staff, Cat and Georgiana come face-to-face with real the scorching passion that’s been haunting their rivalry all along.]]> 352 Alexandra Vasti 1250910986 Alexandra 0 to-read 4.22 2025 Ladies in Hating
author: Alexandra Vasti
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Ne'er Duke Well 195790787 In this steamy Regency romp, Lady Selina is determined to find the Duke of Stanhope the perfect wife―the only problem is she's starting to think that might be her.

Peter Kent―newly inherited Duke of Stanhope and recently of New Orleans, Louisiana―must become respectable. Between his radical politics and the time he interrupted a minor royal wedding with a flock of sheep―not his fault!―he’s developed a scandalous reputation at odds with his goal of becoming guardian to his half siblings. For help, he turns to the cleverest and most managing woman of his acquaintance, Lady Selina Ravenscroft.

Selina is society’s most proper debutante, save one tiny secret: she runs an erotic circulating library for women. When Peter asks for her help, she suggests courtship and marriage to a lady of unimpeachable reputation. (Which is to say, definitely not herself.)

But matchmaking doesn’t go according to plan. Peter’s siblings run rampant on Bond Street. Selina ends up in the Serpentine. And worst of all, the scorching chemistry between Peter and Selina proves impossible to resist. For the disreputable duke and his unpredictable matchmaker, falling in love just might be the ultimate scandal.]]> 352 Alexandra Vasti 1250910943 Alexandra 0 to-read 3.82 2024 Ne'er Duke Well
author: Alexandra Vasti
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Earl Crush 211003729 In Alexandra Vasti’s newest Regency rom-com, a reclusive earl’s life is turned upside down when a stranger shows up on his doorstep with an astonishing proposal—and an inconvenient connection to espionage.

For three years, wallflower heiress Lydia Hope-Wallace has anonymously penned seditious pamphlets. And for almost as long, she’s corresponded with the Earl of Strathrannoch, whose political ambition is matched only by his charm. When Arthur’s latest letter reveals his dire financial straits, Lydia sets out for Scotland to offer him the only salvation she can think of—a marriage of convenience. To, um, herself.

Unfortunately, the Earl of Strathrannoch has no idea who she is.

When a bewitching redheaded stranger offers him her hand in marriage, Arthur Baird is stunned—but when he learns that his traitorous brother has been writing to her under Arthur’s name, he’s bloody furious. He’s content to live alone in his moldering castle, and he has no desire for a provocative, radical wife. (Or at least, he shouldn’t.)

But Arthur is desperate to track down his brother, who’s become dangerously entangled in British espionage, and he needs Lydia’s help. What he doesn’t need? The attraction that burns hotter each moment they spend together. As Lydia slips past his defenses and his brother’s mysterious past becomes a very present threat, Arthur will have to risk everything to keep her safe—even his heart.]]> 329 Alexandra Vasti 125091096X Alexandra 0 to-read 4.08 2025 Earl Crush
author: Alexandra Vasti
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Song of Legends Lost 202251782
In the Nine Lands, only those of noble blood can summon the spirits of their ancestors to fight in battle. But when Temi, a commoner from the slums, accidentally invokes a powerful spirit, she finds it could hold the key to ending a centuries-long war. But not everything that can be invoked is an ancestor. And some of the spirits that can be drawn from the ancestral realm are more dangerous than anyone can imagine.]]> 640 M.H. Ayinde 0356525309 Alexandra 0 to-read 4.15 2025 A Song of Legends Lost
author: M.H. Ayinde
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism]]> 55338982
What makes “cults� so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .

Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.� But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day.

Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,� revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish� everywhere.]]> 309 Amanda Montell 0062993151 Alexandra 3 3.82 2021 Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
author: Amanda Montell
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> The Starving Saints 217896248 From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing, intensely atmospheric fever dream of medieval horror.

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters� or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.]]> 352 Caitlin Starling 0063418819 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.06 2025 The Starving Saints
author: Caitlin Starling
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Knight and the Butcherbird]]> 224970641
In this gritty, haunting tale about doing whatever it takes for love, a small-town storyteller resolves to keep the local monster—and her own secrets—safe from a legendary knight.

Nestled deep in the steep hills, valleys, and surrounding woodlands lies Iron Hollow, a rural community beset by demons. Such horrors are common in the outlands, where most folks die young, if they don’t turn into monsters first. But what’s causing these transformations?

No one has the answer, not even the town’s oral historian, seventeen-year-old Shrike. And when a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest beast to haunt their woods, Shrike has more reason than most to be concerned. Because that demon was her wife. And while Shrike is certain that May still recognizes her—that May is still human, somewhere beneath it all—she can’t prove it.

Determined to keep May safe, Shrike stalks the knight and his demon-hunting hawk through the recesses of the forest. But as they creep through toxic creeks and overgrown kudzu, Shrike realizes the knight has a secret of his own. And he’ll do anything to protect it.]]> 36 Alix E. Harrow 1662527233 Alexandra 4 2025-releases 4.02 2025 The Knight and the Butcherbird
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fable for the End of the World]]> 209698647 The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes in this stand-alone dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society.

Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt—enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination the Lamb’s Gauntlet.

Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks.

When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs—the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive.

For Melinoë, this is a game she can’t afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption.

As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question Inesa wonders if there’s more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she’s capable of more than killing.

And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.]]> 383 Ava Reid Alexandra 5 2025-releases 3.90 2025 Fable for the End of the World
author: Ava Reid
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: 2025-releases
review:

]]> A Sea of Unspoken Things 207724101 A woman investigates her brother's mysterious death while coming to terms with her own haunting past in this atmospheric novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Unmaking of June Farrow

The only thing James and Johnny Golden have ever had is each other. For as long as she can remember, James’sdeep connection with her twin brother,Johnny,has gone beyond intuition—she can feel what he feels.So, when Johnny is killed in a tragic accident, James knows before her phone even rings that her brother is gone and that she’s alone—truly alone—for the first time in her life.

When James arrives in the rural town of Hawthorne, California to settleher brother’saffairs,she’sforced to rehash the ominous past she and Johnny shared and finally face Micah, the only person who knows about it. He’s also the only man she’s ever loved.

But James soon discovers that the strange connection she had with Johnny isn’t quite gone, and the more she immerses herself into his world, the more questions she has about the brother she thought she knew. Johnny was keeping secrets, and he’s not the only one. What she uncovers will push her to unravel what happened in the days before Johnny’s death, but in the end, she’ll have to decide which truths should come to light, and which should stay buried forever.]]> 277 Adrienne Young 0593598717 Alexandra 4 2025-releases 3.84 2025 A Sea of Unspoken Things
author: Adrienne Young
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: 2025-releases
review:

]]> The Ministry of Time 199798179 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge�: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as �1847� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,� “Spotify,� and “the collapse of the British Empire.� But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.

An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley’s answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.]]> 339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 Alexandra 3 3.54 2024 The Ministry of Time
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/04
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Favorites 211399784 To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER � An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice

“P Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & The Six, this novel is as brilliantly choreographed as a gold medal performance and will keep you guessing until its last page.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship.

Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story� through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.]]> 448 Layne Fargo 0593732049 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.17 2025 The Favorites
author: Layne Fargo
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> Black Woods Blue Sky 213243955 An unforgettable dark fairy tale that asks, Can love save us from ourselves?

Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she’s getting by as a single mother in a tough town. Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature.

Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods. Most people avoid him, but to Birdie he represents everything she’s ever longed for. She finds herself falling for Arthur and the land he knows so well. Against the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to his isolated cabin in the mountains on the far side of the Wolverine River.

It’s just the three of them in the vast black woods, far from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. At first, it’s idyllic, but soon Birdie discovers that Arthur is something much more mysterious and dangerous than she could have imagined, and that like the Alaska wilderness, a fairy tale can be as dark as it is beautiful.]]> 306 Eowyn Ivey 0593231023 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 3.69 2025 Black Woods Blue Sky
author: Eowyn Ivey
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Forest King's Daughter (Thirstwood, #1)]]> 214175189 For fans of Sarah J. Maas andHolly Black,The Forest King's Daughteris an enemies-to-forbidden-lovers romance from theNew York Timesbestselling author ofFrostblood.

Once upon a time, amongthe bloodredtrees ofThirstwood, a youngforestprincess became friends with a lonely demon boy. He gifted her an amber ring, a worthless trinket…or so he thought...because no sooner did he slide it onto her finger than the demon queen andforestking declared war.

Years later, Cassia is a crucial force in her father’s army, wielding her ring of light that can blind and disorient hundreds of demons at a time. Then battle-hardened Zeruabductsher, planning to steal the ring back to fix his costly childhood mistake. Exhausted, terrified, and more than a little mistrusting, Cassia is forced to travel with Zeru to a place they both believed only existed in storybooks, one where their childhood friendship slowly rekindles into something much more. But it's only a matter of time before the war they've escaped comes for them, and a hidden threat toforest folkand demons alike grows in the shadows.

From the author of the Frostblood Sagacomes the first book in an enchanting,adventure-filled fantasy series about the daughters of the powerfulforestking, sure to leave readers breathless and desperate for more.]]> 384 Elly Blake 0316395722 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 3.63 2025 The Forest King's Daughter (Thirstwood, #1)
author: Elly Blake
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rebel Witch (The Crimson Moth, #2)]]> 60217777 The stakes are even higher in this epic, romantic conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Crimson Moth duology.

A WITCH...
Rune Winters is on the run. Ever since the boy she loved, Gideon Sharpe, revealed who she was and delivered her into enemy hands, everyone wants her dead. If Rune hopes to survive, she must ally herself with the cruel and dangerous Cressida Roseblood, who’s planning to take back the Republic and reinstate a Reign of Witches—something Cressida needs Rune to accomplish.

A WITCH HUNTER...
Apparently it wasn’t enough for Rune to deceive Gideon; she’s now betrayed him by allying herself with the witch who made his life a living hell. Gideon won’t allow the Republic to fall to the witches and be plunged back into the nightmares of the past. In order to protect this new world he fought for, every last witch must die—especially Rune Winters.

AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE...
When Rune makes Gideon an offer he can’t refuse, the two must pair up to accomplish dangerous goals. The more they’re forced into each other’s company, the more Gideon realizes the feelings he had for Rune aren’t as dead and buried as he thought. Now he’s faced with a terrible choice: sacrifice the girl he loves to stop a monster taking back power, or let Rune live and watch the world he fought so hard for burn.

In Kristen Ciccarelli's Rebel Witch, the exciting conclusion to The Crimson Moth duology, love has never been so deadly.]]> 464 Kristen Ciccarelli Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.23 2025 Rebel Witch (The Crimson Moth, #2)
author: Kristen Ciccarelli
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> The River Has Roots 211004176 Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.

“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.�

In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters� bond but also their lives will be at risk…]]> 133 Amal El-Mohtar 1250341086 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.19 2025 The River Has Roots
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Raven Scholar (Eternal Path Trilogy, #1)]]> 212174157 From an electrifying new voice in epic fantasy comes The Raven Scholar, a masterfully woven and playfully inventive tale of imperial intrigue, cutthroat competition, and one scholar’s quest to uncover the truth.

Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, Bersun the Brusque must end his reign. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders compete to replace him. They are exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists—the best of the best.

Then one of them is murdered.

It falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor’s brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer before the trials end. To do so, she must untangle a web of deadly secrets that stretches back generations, all while competing against six warriors with their own dark histories and fierce ambitions. Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in.

If she succeeds, she will win the throne. If she fails, death awaits her. But we won’t let that happen.

We are the Raven, and we are magnificent.]]> 656 Antonia Hodgson 152933988X Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.47 2025 The Raven Scholar (Eternal Path Trilogy, #1)
author: Antonia Hodgson
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon]]> 218460312 A multiverse novel abouttwo women who fall in love despite living in worlds that are five months apart, as they try to find a timeline that doesn’t end in disaster, in this debut novel by Annie Mare.

Tressa Fay Robeson has never been shy, which is how she’s made a name for herself as an in-demand hairstylist and social media star. So she can admit that spending her days at her hair salon and her nights with her tight-knit group of friends (and one grumpy cat) is not the kind of exciting life she’d hoped for.

When a misdirected text from a stranger leads to a flirty exchange, she surprises herself by suggesting an impulsive meetup. But the woman, Meryl, never shows. Tressa Fay brushes it off—until Meryl’s sister and friend show up at the salon demanding to know what’s going on. Because, you see, there’s no way Meryl could have texted her. Meryl has been missing for a month.

Tressa Fay and her tight-knit group of friends soon discover they aren’t dealing with a catfish, but a temporal paradox. As they come to terms with the idea of parallel universes, they realize how many times their paths have crossed like this before. But even as they understand the multiverse more and more, nothing keeps Meryl from vanishing.

As it draws closer to the moment of Meryl’s disappearance, there’s only one question Have they done enough to change the outcome, or have they done so much that none of them will make it past that fateful day in September?]]> 384 Annie Mare 0593817486 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 3.73 2025 Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon
author: Annie Mare
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> The Magician of Tiger Castle 220999061 The beloved author of Holes presents his first adult novel, a modern fantasy classic of forbidden love, a crumbling kingdom, and the unexpected magic all around us.

Long ago and far away (and somewhere south of France) lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance, and to that end, Tullia's father has arranged a marriage between her and an odious prince. However, one month before the "wedding of the century," Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe.

The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. Seventeen years earlier, when Anatole first came to the castle, he was regarded as something of a prodigy. But after a long series of failures—the latest being an attempt to transform sand into gold—he has become the object of contempt and ridicule. The only one who still believes in him is the princess.

When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice. With one chance to save the marriage, the kingdom, and, of most importance to him, his reputation, will he betray the princess—or risk ruin?]]> 320 Louis Sachar 0593952308 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.10 2025 The Magician of Tiger Castle
author: Louis Sachar
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> The Isle in the Silver Sea 219134676 From World Fantasy Award-winning author Tasha Suri comes The Isle in the Silver Sea, a heart-shattering romantasy of sapphic longing, medieval folklore and a love that spans the centuries.

In a Britain fuelled by stories, the knight and the witch are fated to fall in love and doom each other over and over, the same tale retold over hundreds of lifetimes.

Simran is a witch of the woods. Vina is a knight of the Queen's court. When the two women begin to fall for each other, how can they surrender to their desires, when to give in is to destroy each other?

As they seek a way to break the cycle, a mysterious assassin begins targeting tales like theirs. To survive, the two will need to write a story stronger than the one that fate has given to them.

But what tale is stronger than The Knight and the Witch?]]> 384 Tasha Suri 0356524418 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.75 2025 The Isle in the Silver Sea
author: Tasha Suri
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> The Song of Achilles 13623848 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062060624.

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.]]> 408 Madeline Miller Alexandra 0 4.30 2011 The Song of Achilles
author: Madeline Miller
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: scribd, lgbtqia, currently-reading
review:

]]> Turtles All the Way Down 35498621 JOHN GREEN, the acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, returns with a story of shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.

Aza Holmes never intended to pursue the disappearance of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Pickett’s son Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.]]> 299 John Green 0525555358 Alexandra 5 tbr-owned 4.05 2017 Turtles All the Way Down
author: John Green
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: tbr-owned
review:

]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 Alexandra 0 to-read 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1)]]> 123334051
ASSISTANT WANTED : Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem, terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer—naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie .

But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain—and his entire nefarious empire—out.

Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.

After all, a good job is hard to find.]]> 425 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1649375522 Alexandra 1 2023-releases 4.19 2023 Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1)
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: 2023-releases
review:

]]> Maybe This Time 211109423
Finding true love is only a matter of time in this heartfelt and hilarious romantic comedy, starring Zoë Chao (The Afterparty), Noah Reid (Schitt’s Creek), and a full cast!

Romance can be a little complicated when you get sucked into a wormhole. Just ask high school English teacher June Flint. One little solar flare happens and suddenly you find yourself 85 years in the future. Eighty-five years from your dream job. Your ailing mother whose only companion in this world is you. Your favorite stuffed-crust pizza from DeLucia’s on Sunday nights.

But when June’s cell phone inexplicably picks up a signal, she’s able to call back to the present—more specifically, four weeks before she accidentally time traveled. Problem is, the phone can only call one number: her work nemesis, gym teacher Mikey Shannon.

Now future June must help Mikey befriend present-day June to keep her from disappearing. But present-day June doesn't even want to be in the same room as Mikey, let alone become besties. And Mikey isn’t exactly...talkie. Yet he’s spending hours a day with future June on the phone, and even more time trying to befriend present-day June. Volunteering with June at school, check. Facing his fear of roller coasters to make June smile, check. Adopting a puppy and letting her name it. Check.

But what does succeeding in the present mean for future June, and for the serious feelings she and Mikey are starting to catch for one another? Stopping time travel is one thing—but can they stop themselves from falling in love?

Full list of narrators: Zoë Chao, Noah Reid, Josh Hurley, Beata Pozniak, Jim Seybert, Emily Lawrence, Tina Wolstencroft, Petrea Burchard, Joel Simler, Aaron Shedlock, Christian Barillas, Eric Yves Garcia, Alex Picard, Lorrie Grant, Andy Garcia-Ruse, Dominic Russo, Ian Hackney.

Available in Dolby Atmos on Audible.]]> 6 Cara Bastone Alexandra 0 3.84 2024 Maybe This Time
author: Cara Bastone
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days: Tales from Hawthorne Cottage]]> 212991742 How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days is a comfort read fantasy romance between a halfling and a goblin: imagine a classic opposites-attract romcom taking place in those cosy scenes in the hobbits' Shire from The Lord of the Rings. Expect magical forests, interfering wizards, lots of home cooking, and maybe even a kiss at the Harvest dance...

When a halfling, Pansy, and a goblin, Ren, each think they've inherited the same cottage, they make a bargain: they'll live in the house together and whoever is driven out first forfeits their ownership. Amidst forced proximity and cultural misunderstandings, the two begin to fall in love.

But when the cottage - and their communities - are threatened by a common enemy, the duo must learn to trust each other, and convince goblins and halflings to band together to oust the tall intruder.

Perfect for fans of cosy fantasy novels including Legends and Lattes, The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Lord of the Rings.]]> 384 Jessie Sylva 035652485X Alexandra 0 to-read 4.50 2026 How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days: Tales from Hawthorne Cottage
author: Jessie Sylva
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 387 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Alexandra 4 2025-releases 4.62 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: 2025-releases
review:

]]> Fate's Bane 222376644 Ignyte Award-winning author C. L. Clark brings fantasy to the fens with Fate's Bane, a tragic sapphic adventure.

Warring clans. Burning hearts. Deadly fate.

The clans of the fens enjoy a tenuous peace, and it is all thanks to Agnir, ward and hostage. For as long as she can remember she has lived among the enemy, learning their ways, growing strong alongside their children. When a burgeoning love for the chieftain's daughter lures them both to a hidden spring, a magic awakens in them that could bind the clans under one banner at last--or destroy any hope of peace. By working their intentions into leather, they can weave misfortune for their enemies... just like the Fate's Bane that haunts the legends of the clans.

Ambitions grow in their fathers' hearts, grudges threaten a return to violence, and greedy enemies wait outside the borders, seeking a foothold to claim the fens for themselves. And though their Makings may save their families, the legend that gave them this power always exacts its price.]]> 176 C.L. Clark 1250293146 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.20 2025 Fate's Bane
author: C.L. Clark
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave (Finlay Donovan, #5)]]> 211003787 From New York Times bestseller and Edgar-Award nominee Elle Cosimano, comes Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave—the hugely anticipated next installment in the fan-favorite Finlay Donovan series.

Finlay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet . . . but at least there's not a body in her backyard.

Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime, Vero, have not always gotten along with Finlay’s elderly neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty, the community busybody and president of the neighborhood watch. But when a dead body is discovered in her backyard, Mrs. Haggerty needs their help. At first a suspect, Mrs. Haggerty is cleared by the police, but her house remains an active crime scene. She has nowhere to go . . . except Finlay’s house, right across the street.

Finlay and Vero have no interest in getting involved in another murder case—or sacrificing either of their bedrooms. After all, they’ve dealt with enough murders over the last four months to last a lifetime and they both would much rather share their beds with someone else.]]> 320 Elle Cosimano 1250337348 Alexandra 4 4.13 2025 Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave (Finlay Donovan, #5)
author: Elle Cosimano
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2)]]> 127611580
And they can’t stand each other.

Indie singer-songwriter Lark is the sunshine and glitter that burns through every cloud and clings to every crevice that Lachlan Kane tries to hide inside. The surly older brother of her best friend’s soulmate, Lachlan thinks she’s just a privileged princess, but Lark has plenty of secrets hiding in the shadows of her bright light. With her formidable family in a tailspin and her best friend’s happiness on the line, she’s willing to make a vow to the man she’s determined to hate, no matter how tempting the broody assassin might be.

As Lachlan and Lark navigate the dark world that binds them together, it becomesimpossible to discerntheirfake marriage from a real one. But it’s not just familiar dangers that haunt them.
There’s another phantom lurking on their doorstep.

And this one has come for blood.]]> 416 Brynne Weaver 0349441588 Alexandra 3 3.98 2024 Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Thousand Nights (A Thousand Nights, #1)]]> 21524446 And so she is taken in her sister’s place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin’s court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awakened by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.
Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.
Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.]]> 325 E.K. Johnston 1484722272 Alexandra 2 tbr-owned 3.63 2015 A Thousand Nights (A Thousand Nights, #1)
author: E.K. Johnston
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: tbr-owned
review:

]]> Local Heavens 221244034
New York City, 2075. Filipino-American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas, where he’s struck by the city’s contradictions—shining corporate towers casting bleak shadows over the slums of a crumbling middle class.

When Nick meets alluring new-money Jay Gatsby, he falls for Gatsby’s frank charm and confident aura. But in a city where the wealthy flaunt tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death, surfaces aren’t all they seem—and as a corporate- sanctioned cyberspace hacker, Nick knows that no secret can stay buried forever. He’s the reason they don’t. And his latest assignment? Investigate Gatsby himself.

As Nick becomes entangled in the dark affairs of the elite—and the devastating fallout of their actions on the city’s most vulnerable—he must reckon with the limits of compassion and accountability across class and status. What takes precedence: Love, or truth? Heart, or soul?

A brilliant reimagining of Fitzgerald’s classic tale of glamour, desire, and desperation, Local Heavens examines the guardrails of morality� and the price of desire. Publication set for fall 2025.]]> K.M. Fajardo Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.81 Local Heavens
author: K.M. Fajardo
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.81
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]]> 60531416 #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us a gripping story set in the Cosmere universe told by Hoid, where two people from incredibly different worlds must compromise and work together to save their worlds from ruin.

Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster?]]> 480 Brandon Sanderson 1938570375 Alexandra 5 4.45 2023 Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience]]> 56808517 Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organisers, artists, academics and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience.
Contributions by Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Laverne Cox, Jason Reynolds, Austin Channing Brown, and more.

It started as a text between two friends.

Tarana Burke, founder of the 'me too.' Movement, texted researcher and writer Brené Brown to see if she was free to jump on a call. Brené assumed that Tarana wanted to talk about wallpaper. They had been trading home decorating inspiration boards in their last text conversation so Brené started scrolling to find her latest Pinterest pictures when the phone rang.

But it was immediately clear to Brené that the conversation wasn't going to be about wallpaper. Tarana's hello was serious and she hesitated for a bit before saying, "Brené, you know your work affected me so deeply, but as a Black woman, I've sometimes had to feel like I have to contort myself to fit into some of your words. The core of it rings so true for me, but the application has been harder."

Brené replied, "I'm so glad we're talking about this. It makes sense to me. Especially in terms of vulnerability. How do you take the armour off in a country where you're not physically or emotionally safe?"

Long pause.

"That's why I'm calling," said Tarana. "What do you think about working together on a book about the Black experience with vulnerability and shame resilience?"

There was no hesitation.


Burke and Brown are the perfect pair to usher in this stark, potent collection of essays on Black shame and healing. Along with the anthology contributors, they create a space to recognise and process the trauma of white supremacy, a space to be vulnerable and affirm the fullness of Black love and Black life.]]> 6 Tarana Burke 0593451910 Alexandra 0 to-read 4.52 2021 You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience
author: Tarana Burke
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Change 63874610
After Nessa James’s husband dies and her twin daughters leave for college, she’s left all alone in a trim white house not far from the ocean. In the quiet of her late forties, the former nurse begins to hear voices. It doesn’t take long for Nessa to realize that the voices calling out to her belong to the dead—a gift she’s inherited from her grandmother, which comes with special responsibilities.

On the cusp of 50, suave advertising director Harriett Osborne has just witnessed the implosion of her lucrative career and her marriage. She hasn’t left her house in months, and from the outside, it appears as if she and her garden have both gone to seed. But Harriett’s life is far from over—in fact, she’s undergone a stunning and very welcome metamorphosis.

Ambitious former executive Jo Levison has spent thirty long years at war with her body. The free-floating rage and hot flashes that arrive with the beginning of menopause feel like the very last straw—until she realizes she has the ability to channel them, and finally comes into her power.

Guided by voices only Nessa can hear, the trio of women discover a teenage girl whose body was abandoned beside a remote beach. The police have written the victim off as a drug-addicted sex worker, but the women refuse to buy into the official narrative. Their investigation into the girl’s murder leads to more bodies, and to the town’s most exclusive and isolated enclave, a world of stupendous wealth where the rules don’t apply. With their newfound powers, Jo, Nessa, and Harriett will take matters into their own hands…]]> 480 Kirsten Miller 0063144050 Alexandra 0 to-read 4.07 2022 The Change
author: Kirsten Miller
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Clever Little Thing 211399781 A taut, powerful psychological thriller following a mother who must confront a sudden and terrifying change in her daughter after the abrupt death of their babysitter.

Charlotte’s daughter Stella is sensitive and brilliant, perhaps even a genius, but a recent change in her behavior has alarmed her mother. Following the sudden death of Stella’s babysitter, Blanka, the once disruptive and anti-social child has become docile and agreeable. But what’s unsettling is that she has begun to mirror Blanka’s personality, from Blanka’s repetitive phrases to her accent, to fierce cravings for Armenian meat stew after being raised a vegetarian.

Charlotte is pregnant with her second child, and depleted and sick with the pregnancy. She is convinced that Blanka herself is somehow responsible for Stella’s transformation. But how could Blanka, dead, still be entwined in their lives? Has Blanka somehow possessed Stella? Has Stella become Blanka? As Charlotte becomes increasingly obsessed, she is sure that only she can save her daughter. . . even though it’s soon clear that her husband believes this is all in Charlotte’s head.

Helena Echlin’s singular, chilling voice holds light to the blurred lines of diagnosis in children and to the vital power of maternal instinct. Kaleidoscopic and tense, pulse-pounding and genuinely creepy, and infused with shades of the supernatural, Clever Little Thing is an ode to motherhood and a nuanced critique of the caretaking industry, a page-turner that will haunt readers long after its epic, surprising finale.]]> 352 Helena Echlin 0593656075 Alexandra 3 3.62 2025 Clever Little Thing
author: Helena Echlin
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)]]> 196864520

The viral TikTok friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy full of murder, chaos, and spice—unlike anything you’ve read before—now available in all bookstores.


When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of like-minded, pitch-black souls. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country.


But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

]]> 360 Brynne Weaver Alexandra 3 3.99 2023 Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy, #1)]]> 153283393 This sparkling edition will include a special case stamping, bonus content, and a teaser to book two in this heart-pounding series!

Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, this young adult fantasy follows the forbidden romance between a powerful prince and an ordinary girl as they try to survive their kingdom’s grueling laws pitting them against each other.

She is the very thing he’s spent his whole life hunting.
He is the very thing she’s spent her whole live pretending to be.

Only the extraordinary belong in the kingdom of Ilya—the exceptional, the empowered, the Elites. The powers these Elites have possessed for decades were graciously gifted to them by the Plague, though not all were fortunate enough to both survive the sickness and reap the reward. Those born Ordinary are just that—ordinary. And when the king decreed that all Ordinaries be banished to preserve his Elite society, lacking an ability suddenly became a crime—making Paedyn Gray a felon by fate and a thief by necessity.

Surviving in the slums as an Ordinary is no simple task, and Paedyn knows this better than most. Having been trained by her father to be keenly observant since she was a child, Paedyn poses as a Psychic in the crowded city, blending in with the Elites as best she can to stay alive and out of trouble…easier said than done.

When Paeydn unsuspectingly saves one of Ilya’s princes, she finds herself thrown into the Purging Trials. The brutal competition exists to showcase the Elites� powers—the very thing Paedyn lacks. If the Trials and the opponents within them don’t kill her, the prince she’s fighting feelings for certainly will if he discovers what she is…completely Ordinary.]]> 523 Lauren Roberts 1665954884 Alexandra 4 4.21 2023 Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy, #1)
author: Lauren Roberts
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde, #3)]]> 208841368 Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project studying the inner workings of a faerie realm-as its queen.

Along with her former academic rival-now fiancé-the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell's long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare, filled with scholarly treasures.

Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal world-how could an unassuming scholar like herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in-Wendell's murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell's magic-and Emily's knowledge of stories-to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.
]]> 368 Heather Fawcett 0356519198 Alexandra 3 2025-releases 4.14 2025 Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde, #3)
author: Heather Fawcett
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume Four (Heartstopper, #4)]]> 56060300 Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. The bestselling LGBTQ+ graphic novel about life, love, and everything that happens in between: this is the fourth volume of HEARTSTOPPER, for fans of The Art of Being Normal, Holly Bourne and Love, Simon.

Charlie didn't think Nick could ever like him back, but now they're officially boyfriends. Charlie's beginning to feel ready to say those three little words: I love you.

Nick's been feeling the same, but he's got a lot on his mind - not least coming out to his dad, and the fact that Charlie might have an eating disorder.

As summer turns to autumn and a new school year begins, Charlie and Nick are about to learn a lot about what love means.

Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

This is the fourth volume of Heartstopper, which has now been optioned for television by See-Saw Films.]]> 384 Alice Oseman 1338617567 Alexandra 4 4.57 2021 Heartstopper: Volume Four (Heartstopper, #4)
author: Alice Oseman
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves:
review:

]]> Signal Moon 61045711
Yorkshire, 1943. Lily Baines, a bright young debutante increasingly ground down by an endless war, has traded in her white gloves for a set of headphones. It’s her job to intercept enemy naval communications and send them to Bletchley Park for decryption.

One night, she picks up a transmission that isn’t code at all—it’s a cry for help.

An American ship is taking heavy fire in the North Atlantic—but no one else has reported an attack, and the information relayed by the young US officer, Matt Jackson, seems all wrong. The contact that Lily has made on the other end of the radio channel says it’s� 2023.

Across an eighty-year gap, Lily and Matt must find a way to help each other: Matt to convince her that the war she’s fighting can still be won, and Lily to help him stave off the war to come. As their connection grows stronger, they both know there’s no telling when time will run out on their inexplicable link.]]> 57 Kate Quinn 1662500882 Alexandra 3 4.32 2022 Signal Moon
author: Kate Quinn
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves:
review:

]]> A Novel Love Story 199261152 A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction� literally.

Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.

But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel�

Because it is.

This place can’t be real, and yet� she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.

Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.

Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.

Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.]]> 368 Ashley Poston 0593640977 Alexandra 2 2024-releases 3.62 2024 A Novel Love Story
author: Ashley Poston
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: 2024-releases
review:

]]> The Bones Beneath My Skin 211004023 A spine-tingling thriller by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, about a 10-year-old girl with an impossible power, her father, and an unlikely stranger, who come together to confront the dangerous forces that want her at all costs. A strange story of family, love, comets, and bacon. Perfect for fans of Stranger Things.

In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his older brother wants nothing to do with him, and he's been fired from his job as a journalist in Washington DC. With nothing left to lose, he returns to his family's summer cabin outside the small mountain town of Roseland, Oregon to try and find some sense of direction. The cabin should be empty. It's not. Inside is a man named Alex. And with him is an extraordinary little girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. Artemis, who isn't exactly as she appears.

Soon it becomes clear that Nate must make a choice: let himself drown in the memories of his past, or fight for a future he never thought possible. Because the girl is special. And forces are descending upon them who want nothing more than to control her.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 416 T.J. Klune 1250890438 Alexandra 0 to-read 4.11 2018 The Bones Beneath My Skin
author: T.J. Klune
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Vampire Plus-One (My Vampires, #2)]]> 204640539
Amelia Collins is by definition successful. She would even go so far as to say successfully single. But not according to her family, and she’s tired of the constant questions about her nonexistent dating life. When an invitation to yet another family wedding arrives, she decides to get everyone off her back once and for all by finding someone–anyone–to pose as her date.

After a chance encounter with Reginald Cleaves, Amelia decides he’s perfect for her purposes. He’s a bit strange, but that’s fine; it’ll discourage tough questions from her family. (And it certainly doesn’t hurt that he’s very handsome.) For centuries-old vampire Reggie, posing as her plus-one sounds like the ultimate fun. And if it helps his ruse of pretending to be human, so much the better.

As Amelia and Reggie practice their fauxmance, it becomes clear that Reggie is as loyal to her as the day is long, and that Amelia’s first impressions could not have been more wrong. Suddenly, being in a real relationship with Reggie sounds pretty fang-tastic.]]> 372 Jenna Levine 0593548930 Alexandra 3 3.73 2024 My Vampire Plus-One (My Vampires, #2)
author: Jenna Levine
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Phantasma (Wicked Games, #1) 204593914 Welcome to Phantasma. There are only two rules to the game: Stay alive. And don’t fall in love.

When Ophelia’s sister disappears, there is only one way to save her. Ophelia must enter Phantasma, a deadly contest inside a haunted mansion, and claim its prize—a single wish.

Phantasma is a maze of twisting corridors and lavish ballrooms, of demons and temptations. Ophelia will face nine challenges, each more dangerous than the last. There can only be one winner, and the other contestants will stop at nothing to eliminate their rivals.

Every day the house creates new monsters. But just as Ophelia’s fears threaten to overwhelm her, a mysterious stranger offers her a bargain.

Charming, arrogant and infuriatingly attractive, Blackwell claims he can guide her through the lethal trials ahead. All he asks in return is ten years of her life.

Ophelia knows she shouldn’t trust him. Blackwell doesn’t seem dangerous, but appearances can be deceptive. Worse still, she feels a dark and irresistible attraction drawing them closer and closer.

Her life is on the line. But in Phantasma, the only thing deadlier than losing the game is losing your heart . . .]]> 497 Kaylie Smith 1538769255 Alexandra 5 4.05 2024 Phantasma (Wicked Games, #1)
author: Kaylie Smith
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heartless Hunter (The Crimson Moth, #1)]]> 127305713
Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe � a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution � who she can't help but find herself falling for.

Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?

Kristen Ciccarelli’s The Crimson Moth is the thrilling start to a romantic fantasy duology where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch� is falling in love.]]> 406 Kristen Ciccarelli 1250866901 Alexandra 4 4.16 2024 Heartless Hunter (The Crimson Moth, #1)
author: Kristen Ciccarelli
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Deep End 212806981 A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water...]]> 447 Ali Hazelwood 0593550447 Alexandra 3 2025-releases 4.10 2025 Deep End
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: 2025-releases
review:

]]> The Wild Huntress 207567925
BRANWEN possesses a gift no other human has: the ability to see and slay monsters. She’s desperate to cure her mother’s sickness, and the Wild Hunt is her only option.

GWYDION is the least impressive of his magically talented family, but with his ability to control plants and his sleight of hand, he’ll do whatever it takes to keep his cruel older brother from becoming a tyrant.

PRYDERI is prince-born and monster-raised. Deep down, the royal crown doesn’t interest him—all he wants is to know is where he belongs.

A trickster, a prince, and a wild huntress—if they band together against the monstrous creatures within the woods, they have a chance to win. But nothing is guaranteed, for all are fair game in love and the Hunt.]]> 421 Emily Lloyd-Jones 0316568147 Alexandra 0 to-read 4.00 2024 The Wild Huntress
author: Emily Lloyd-Jones
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)]]> 217536270
In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn't much a girl wouldn't do for a glass of water.

Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen's reservoirs for as long as she can remember.

But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone.

When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently re-opens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares... but it turns out they're real, and Saeris has landed herself in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed.

The first of her kind to tread the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over a thousand years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfisher, a handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own. He will use her Alchemist's magic to protect his people, no matter what it costs him . . . or her.

Death has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate. His past is murky. His attitude stinks. And he's the only way Saeris is going to make it home.]]> 624 Callie Hart 1538774194 Alexandra 4 3.5 stars 4.29 2024 Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)
author: Callie Hart
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars
]]> <![CDATA[This Is How You Lose the Time War]]> 43352954 Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.]]> 209 Amal El-Mohtar Alexandra 4 3.86 2019 This Is How You Lose the Time War
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves:
review:

]]> The Truth According to Ember 201752567
Ember Lee Cardinal has not always been a liar—well, not for anything that counted at least. But her job search is not going well and when her resumé is rejected for the thirty-seventh time, she takes matters into her own hands. She gets “creative� listing her qualifications and answers the ethnicity question on applications with a lie—a half-lie, technically. No one wanted Native American Ember, but white Ember has just landed her dream accounting job on Park Avenue (Oklahoma City, that is).

Accountant Ember thrives in corporate life—and her love life seems to be looking up too: Danuwoa Colson, the IT guy and fellow Native who caught her eye on her first day, seems to actually be interested in her too. Despite her unease over the no-dating policy at work, they start to see each other secretly, which somehow makes it even hotter? But when they’re caught in a compromising position on a work trip, a scheming colleague blackmails Ember, threatening to expose their relationship. As the manipulation continues to grow, so do Ember’s lies. She must make the hard decision to either stay silent or finally tell the truth, which could cost her everything.]]> 358 Danica Nava 0593642600 Alexandra 3 3.68 2024 The Truth According to Ember
author: Danica Nava
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves:
review:

]]> The Phoenix Keeper 203163900 Set in a magical zoo teeming with mythical beasts from dragons and unicorns to kelpies and krakens, The Phoenix Keeper is a fierce joy of a cozy fantasy novel with a soul-restoring queer romance at its heart, for fans of The House in the Cerulean Sea and Legends and Lattes.

As head phoenix keeper at a world-renowned zoo for magical creatures, Aila's childhood dream of conserving critically endangered firebirds seems closer than ever. There's just one glaring caveat: her zoo's breeding program hasn't functioned for a decade. When a tragic phoenix heist sabotages the flagship initiative at a neighboring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins.

But saving an entire species from extinction requires more than stellar animal handling skills. Carnivorous water horses, tempestuous thunderhawks, mischievous dragons... Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. But mustering the courage to ask for help from the hotshot griffin keeper at the zoo's most popular exhibit? Virtually impossible.

Especially when that hotshot griffin keeper happens to be her arch-rival from college: Luciana, an annoyingly brooding and insufferable know-it-all with the face of a goddess who's convinced that Aila's beloved phoenix would serve their cause better as an active performer rather than as a passive conservation exhibit. With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila's success is no longer merely a matter of keeping her job...

She is the keeper of the phoenix, and the future of a species � and her love life � now rests on her shoulders.]]> 496 S.A. MacLean 0316573094 Alexandra 4 3.80 2024 The Phoenix Keeper
author: S.A. MacLean
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> The Glass Garden 216740482
Eerie, luminescent images cover the walls of an underground cavern. The glass garden looks like a payday to Lissy, who’s been struggling to turn a profit to keep her salvage crew fed and paid. Therese, however, insists on careful academic procedure. She can’t figure it out: Is the anomaly an artificial creation–or a living organism?

As the anomaly’s mystery draws the sisters into an obsessive orbit, it turns out neither greed nor science can offer protection from its relentless gravity.]]> 132 Jessica Lévai 1941360874 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.00 2025 The Glass Garden
author: Jessica Lévai
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club 218218717 In this laugh-out-loud murder mystery, three women dating the same man band together to get revenge, but when they discover his body, they'll need to solve his murder before they go down for it.

The body in the closet was going to be a problem. Kathryn Hu knew it. Yes, Tucker Jones was a cheating scumbag, and yes, she’d agreed to meet Olivia and Elle—Tucker’s other girlfriends—to exact revenge for all he’d put them through� But then they found him. Dead.

Do they look guilty? Yes.

Do they feel guilty for having wished him dead just hours before? Maybe a little.

But—solid motive and a crime scene covered in their DNA aside—they’re innocent. They swear.

To clear their names, Kat, Olivia, and Elle team up to find the real killer. But as they go undercover and lie to everyone, including the hot detective working the case, they realize that every person in their ex's life had a reason to want him dead. Will they uncover the truth before they go down for a murder they didn't commit?

Filled with humor and shenanigans,The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Clubis a romp of an adventure by award-winning author Gloria Chao, perfect for fans ofDial A for Aunties,Finlay Donovan Is Killing ItandJohn Tucker Must Die.]]> 318 Gloria Chao 0369761294 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.08 2025 The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club
author: Gloria Chao
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> A Land So Wide 222419258 From the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of House of Roots and Ruin, comes an irresistible blend of dark fairytale and romantic fantasy set in the beautiful but brutal Canadian wilderness.

Like everyone else in the settlement of Mistaken, Greer Mackenzie is trapped. Founded by an ambitious Scottish lumber merchant, the tiny town on the edge of the American continent is blessed with rich natural resources that have made its people prosperous—but at a cost. The same woods that have lined the townsfolks� pockets harbor dangerous beasts: wolves, bears, and the Bright-Eyeds—monsters beyond description who have rained utter destruction down on nearby settlements. But Mistaken’s founders made a deal with the mysterious Benevolence: the Warding Stones that surround the town will keep the Bright-Eyeds out—and the town’s citizens in. Anyone who spends a night within Mistaken’s borders belongs to it forever.

Greer, a mapmaker and eccentric dreamer, has always ached to explore the world outside, even though she knows she and her longtime love, Ellis Beaufort, will never see it. Until, on the day she and Ellis are meant to finally begin their lives together, Greer watches in horror as her beloved disappears beyond the Warding Stones, pursued by a monstrous creature. Swiftly realizing that the stories she was raised on might be more myth than fact, Greer figures out a way to escape Mistaken for the very first time. Determined to rescue Ellis, she begins a trek through the cold and pitiless wilderness. But Greer is being hunted, not only by the ruthless Bright-Eyeds but by the secret truths behind Mistaken’s founding, as well as her own origins.

Playfully drawing from Scottish folklore, Erin A. Craig’s adult debut is both a deeply atmospheric and profoundly romantic exploration of freedom versus security: a stunning celebration of one woman’s relentless bravery on a quest to reclaim her lost love—and claim her own future.]]> 368 Erin A. Craig 0593686802 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 3.98 2025 A Land So Wide
author: Erin A. Craig
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter (The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club, #1)]]> 34728925
But her hunt leads her to Hyde’s daughter, Diana, a feral child left to be raised by nuns. With the assistance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Mary continues her search for the elusive Hyde, and soon befriends more women, all of whom have been created through terrifying experimentation: Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherin Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein.

When their investigations lead them to the discovery of a secret society of immoral and power-crazed scientists, the horrors of their past return. Now it is up to the monsters to finally triumph over the monstrous.]]> 402 Theodora Goss 1534409637 Alexandra 2 3.81 2017 The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter (The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club, #1)
author: Theodora Goss
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Infamous 60784559
But following their debutante ball Rose is suddenly talking about marriage, and Eddie is horrified.

When Eddie meets charming, renowned poet Nash Nicholson, he invites her to his crumbling Gothic estate in the countryside. The entourage of eccentric artists indulging in pure hedonism is exactly what Eddie needs in order to forget Rose and finish her novel.

But Eddie might discover the world of famous literary icons isn't all poems and pleasure . . .]]> 336 Lex Croucher 125087565X Alexandra 5 4.5 stars

"I am destined to be tragically misunderstood."

"I want to write something great, but I fear I am far too young - I am not a child, but dagger to my heart, I never want to be a minute older."

"To hell with the lot of it - I am quite determined to do exactly the opposite of the world wants from me."

"She usually failed very miserably at not being miserable."

"I wish you would just allow yourself to have the tiniest bit of fun."
"Fun begins at home," said Eddie. "And it ends there, too."

"He's had this entire, very long life so far to work on his personality, and this is all he can come up with!"

You should not be so quick to sell yourself short, Miss Miller. If you are serious, there will be plenty of people willing to do that on your behalf.

Only that you must be your own champion in this sort of business. To everybody else, your writing will be... a commodity, or a passing curiosity. A horror. A punch line. You must love it fiercely, and take pride in it regardless.

"Courageous wasn't the word they used, though, was it?"
"No," said Eddie. "They said dangerous."

I'm sure the slow, agonizing affliction of love gone putrid will do wonders for my work.

"Let's not quarrel," Rose said. "I can't bear it. It feels like everything stops making sense when we do."

"It is not yet illegal to have an interesting thought, sir, although even if it were, you would certainly be in no imminent danger."

It was no good being furious without an audience.

"How terribly pathetic. I must be a great disappointment in person. Nothing like a poem."
"People are never like poems," Eddie said.

"You," he said, "have come to rescue me from a fate worse than death."
"What fate is that?"
"Obscurity."

People don't understand, he said. Those of us who live to create, who throw ourselves upon the altar of art and bleed and bleed for it... how could we ever really inhabit the same world as those who simply dress for the day and read the paper and never dream that they could be the god of something new?

Eddie felt as if she were skittering over the surface of what she truly wanted to say, as if there were hidden depths beneath her writing kept at bay by a thick sheet of ice; no matter how hard she pounded, she could half glimpse them but she couldn't quite reach them.

I don't believe one must suffer for one's art.

I enjoy making art. I don't have to storm off into the wilderness to stub my toe and have a weep about it just to rustle up some inspiration. This idea that everything must come from pain, that even poetry about love and joy but be tinged with the exquisite agony of mortality... it's all very sad and morbid... all I'm saying is, if I make something out of joy, if everybody who beholds it feels that joy and their life is improved, however fleetingly, because of it... is that not worth it?

Eddie tried to imagine herself feeling so at ease with somebody - knowing she would wake up with them every morning, pass the newspaper back and forth, watch them brush their hair and take medicine for their headaches and forget their hat when leaving for parties - and could only see rose. There was nobody else she wanted to share these ordinary and wonderful mundanities with. In an instant she was there, handing Rose the brush and the medicine, waiting outside on the path as she fetched her hat, and then taking her arm with a smile as they went on their way.

She would lie awake trying to soothe her racing heart and think of Rose's words - I like girls - and wonder what, exactly, constituted a like so strong and certain that it was worth speaking aloud. She liked Rose right here, pressed against her under a heap of blankets. She liked the smell of her hair, and the odd little snuffling noises she made in her sleep, and the all-encompassing warmth of her.

"She already knew that she would be so desperate for an invitation to his house so that they could resume their friendship, and devastated if one never came. He had changed her; given her hopes and expectations she never would have dared entertain before. It was dangerous, enticing - and completely addictive."

"I have always found spite to be delightfully motivating."

"Because it mattered more to her to see her name on Rose's lips at that moment than it would if it were on the spines of a thousand books. It would never be enough, to dedicate every part of herself to the pursuit of that one dream, - because she had other dreams, too. One of them was rushing up the lawn toward her."

"That she would only get better, with practice; that the best of her writing was ahead of her."]]> 3.43 2022 Infamous
author: Lex Croucher
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/08
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars

"I am destined to be tragically misunderstood."

"I want to write something great, but I fear I am far too young - I am not a child, but dagger to my heart, I never want to be a minute older."

"To hell with the lot of it - I am quite determined to do exactly the opposite of the world wants from me."

"She usually failed very miserably at not being miserable."

"I wish you would just allow yourself to have the tiniest bit of fun."
"Fun begins at home," said Eddie. "And it ends there, too."

"He's had this entire, very long life so far to work on his personality, and this is all he can come up with!"

You should not be so quick to sell yourself short, Miss Miller. If you are serious, there will be plenty of people willing to do that on your behalf.

Only that you must be your own champion in this sort of business. To everybody else, your writing will be... a commodity, or a passing curiosity. A horror. A punch line. You must love it fiercely, and take pride in it regardless.

"Courageous wasn't the word they used, though, was it?"
"No," said Eddie. "They said dangerous."

I'm sure the slow, agonizing affliction of love gone putrid will do wonders for my work.

"Let's not quarrel," Rose said. "I can't bear it. It feels like everything stops making sense when we do."

"It is not yet illegal to have an interesting thought, sir, although even if it were, you would certainly be in no imminent danger."

It was no good being furious without an audience.

"How terribly pathetic. I must be a great disappointment in person. Nothing like a poem."
"People are never like poems," Eddie said.

"You," he said, "have come to rescue me from a fate worse than death."
"What fate is that?"
"Obscurity."

People don't understand, he said. Those of us who live to create, who throw ourselves upon the altar of art and bleed and bleed for it... how could we ever really inhabit the same world as those who simply dress for the day and read the paper and never dream that they could be the god of something new?

Eddie felt as if she were skittering over the surface of what she truly wanted to say, as if there were hidden depths beneath her writing kept at bay by a thick sheet of ice; no matter how hard she pounded, she could half glimpse them but she couldn't quite reach them.

I don't believe one must suffer for one's art.

I enjoy making art. I don't have to storm off into the wilderness to stub my toe and have a weep about it just to rustle up some inspiration. This idea that everything must come from pain, that even poetry about love and joy but be tinged with the exquisite agony of mortality... it's all very sad and morbid... all I'm saying is, if I make something out of joy, if everybody who beholds it feels that joy and their life is improved, however fleetingly, because of it... is that not worth it?

Eddie tried to imagine herself feeling so at ease with somebody - knowing she would wake up with them every morning, pass the newspaper back and forth, watch them brush their hair and take medicine for their headaches and forget their hat when leaving for parties - and could only see rose. There was nobody else she wanted to share these ordinary and wonderful mundanities with. In an instant she was there, handing Rose the brush and the medicine, waiting outside on the path as she fetched her hat, and then taking her arm with a smile as they went on their way.

She would lie awake trying to soothe her racing heart and think of Rose's words - I like girls - and wonder what, exactly, constituted a like so strong and certain that it was worth speaking aloud. She liked Rose right here, pressed against her under a heap of blankets. She liked the smell of her hair, and the odd little snuffling noises she made in her sleep, and the all-encompassing warmth of her.

"She already knew that she would be so desperate for an invitation to his house so that they could resume their friendship, and devastated if one never came. He had changed her; given her hopes and expectations she never would have dared entertain before. It was dangerous, enticing - and completely addictive."

"I have always found spite to be delightfully motivating."

"Because it mattered more to her to see her name on Rose's lips at that moment than it would if it were on the spines of a thousand books. It would never be enough, to dedicate every part of herself to the pursuit of that one dream, - because she had other dreams, too. One of them was rushing up the lawn toward her."

"That she would only get better, with practice; that the best of her writing was ahead of her."
]]> Mistakes We Never Made 198493739
Two former debate team champions whoalmostfell in love years ago are now stuck together on one wild wedding weekend. When bridesmaid Emma first sees groomsman Finn, she's reminded of all the mistakes she almost made with him—the date, the party, the kiss, that one night on the rooftop in New York. Each ended in heartbreak,and she would have been happy never to see Finn again.

But when the bride runs away, and both Emma and Finn are tasked with bringing her home in time to walk down the aisle, they end up on a whirlwind road trip down memory lane... and might just fall in love along the way.

Perfect for fans of Emily Henry, MISTAKES WE NEVER MADEreminds us it’s never too late to risk falling in love, because being true to your heart is never a mistake.]]> 336 Hannah Brown 1538756773 Alexandra 4 3.31 2024 Mistakes We Never Made
author: Hannah Brown
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear (Wayward Children, #10)]]> 57185878 Giant turtles, impossible ships, and tidal rivers ridden by a Drowned girl in search of a family in the latest in the bestselling Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Wayward Children series from Seanan McGuire.

Nadya had three mothers: the one who bore her, the country that poisoned her, and the one who adopted her.

Nadya never considered herself less than whole, not until her adoptive parents fitted her with a prosthetic arm against her will, seeking to replace the one she'd been missing from birth.

It was cumbersome; it was uncomfortable; it was wrong.

It wasn't her.

Frustrated and unable to express why, Nadya began to wander, until the day she fell through a door into Belyyreka, the Land Beneath the Lake--and found herself in a world of water, filled with child-eating amphibians, majestic giant turtles, and impossible ships that sailed as happily beneath the surface as on top. In Belyyreka, she found herself understood for who she was: a Drowned Girl, who had made her way to her real home, accepted by the river and its people.

But even in Belyyreka, there are dangers, and trials, and Nadya would soon find herself fighting to keep hold of everything she had come to treasure.]]> 160 Seanan McGuire Alexandra 4 2025-releases 4.03 2025 Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear (Wayward Children, #10)
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)]]> 35519101
And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

]]> 158 Martha Wells 1250191785 Alexandra 3 4.21 2018 Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)
author: Martha Wells
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)]]> 35519109
Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.

But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?

And what will become of it when it’s caught?]]> 163 Martha Wells Alexandra 0 to-read 4.38 2018 Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)
author: Martha Wells
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Tale of the Flower Bride]]> 60847626
Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after—and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.

But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.

Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.]]> 304 Roshani Chokshi Alexandra 4 2023-releases 3.82 2023 The Last Tale of the Flower Bride
author: Roshani Chokshi
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: 2023-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Theory of Dreaming (A Study in Drowning, #2)]]> 221228045
All stories come to an end.

Effy learned that when she defeated the Fairy King. Even though she may never know exactly what happened at Hiraeth, she is free of her nightmares and is able to pen a thesis with Preston on the beloved national fairy tale Angharad. She has finally earned a spot at the literature college, making her the first woman in history to enroll.

But some dreams are dangerous, especially when they come true. The entire university—and soon the entire nation—is waiting for her to fail. With the Fairy King defeated and Myrddin’s legacy exposed, Effy can no longer escape into fantasy. Who is she without her stories?

With Effy under threat, Preston is surprised to discover a rage simmering inside him, ringing in his ears like bells. He begins to dream of a palace under the sea, a world where he is king—visions that start to follow him even in waking.

As the war between Llyr and Argant explodes, Effy and Preston find themselves caught in the crossfire: Effy losing her dreams and Preston losing himself in his.

Are dreams ever truly just dreams?]]> 416 Ava Reid 0063421674 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 3.93 2025 A Theory of Dreaming (A Study in Drowning, #2)
author: Ava Reid
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> I Who Have Never Known Men 60811826 Deep underground, forty women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.


As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.


Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman’s modern classic is an important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.]]> 184 Jacqueline Harpman 1945492600 Alexandra 5 4.11 1995 I Who Have Never Known Men
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Two Can Play 217108838
An enemies-to-lovers spicy romance set in the world of video gaming from the bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis—available only in audio!

Viola Bowen has the chance of a lifetime: to design a video game based on her all-time favorite book series. The only problem? Her co-lead is Jesse F-ing Andrews, a.k.a. her arch-nemesis. Jesse has made it abundantly clear over the years that he wants nothing to do with her–and Viola has no idea why.

When their bosses insist a wintery retreat is the perfect team-building exercise, Viola can’t think of anything worse. Being freezing cold in a remote mountain lodge knowing Jesse is right next door? No, thank you.

But as the snow piles on, Viola discovers there’s more to Jesse than she knew, and heat builds in more ways than one.]]> 5 Ali Hazelwood Alexandra 4 3.55 2024 Two Can Play
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)]]> 36223860 alternate cover for ISBN 9781250186928

It has a dark past � one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A� stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.]]> 158 Martha Wells Alexandra 3 4.23 2018 Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)
author: Martha Wells
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Margo's Got Money Troubles 199534613
“[An] enormously entertaining and lovable book.� —Nick Hornby, New York Times Book Review

A bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman’s attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world—from the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen.

As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet's always known she’d have to make it on her own. So she enrolls at her local junior college, even though she can’t imagine how she’ll ever make a living. She’s still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor—and while the affair is brief, it isn’t brief enough to keep her from getting pregnant. Despite everyone’s advice, she decides to keep the baby, mostly out of naiveté and a yearning for something bigger.

Now, at twenty, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed, and on the verge of eviction. She needs a cash infusion—fast. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon finds herself adapting some of Jinx’s advice from the world of wrestling. Like how to craft a compelling character and make your audience fall in love with you. Before she knows it, she’s turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?

Blisteringly funny and filled with sharp insight, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a tender tale starring an endearing young heroine who’s struggling to wrest money and power from a world that has little interest in giving it to her. It’s a playful and honest examination of the art of storytelling and controlling your own narrative, and an empowering portrait of coming into your own, both online and off.

“A wholly original novel. . . . Thorpe is both poetic and profound in the way she brings her remarkable story to an end.� —The Associated Press]]> 304 Rufi Thorpe 0063356589 Alexandra 0 to-read 3.86 2024 Margo's Got Money Troubles
author: Rufi Thorpe
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Sinister Revenge (Veronica Speedwell, #8)]]> 61260992 Veronica must find and stop a devious killer when a group of old friends is targeted for death in this new adventure from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Veronica's natural-historian beau, Stoker, has been away in Bavaria for months and their relationship is at an impasse. But when Veronica shows up before him with his brother, Tiberius, Lord Templeton-Vane, he is lured back home by an intriguing job offer: preparing an iguanodon for a very special dinner party.

Tiberius has received a cryptic message-along with the obituaries of two recently deceased members of his old group of friends, the Seven Sinners-that he too should get his affairs in order. Realizing he is in grave danger but not knowing why, he plans a reunion party for the remaining Sinners at his family estate to lure the killer out while Veronica and Stoker investigate.

As the guests arrive and settle in, the evening's events turn deadly. More clues come to light, leading Veronica, Stoker, and Tiberius to uncover a shared past among the Sinners that has led to the fatal present. But the truth might be far more sinister than what they were prepared for.]]> 310 Deanna Raybourn 0593545923 Alexandra 4 4.13 2023 A Sinister Revenge (Veronica Speedwell, #8)
author: Deanna Raybourn
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]> Project Hail Mary 54493401
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?]]> 476 Andy Weir 0593135202 Alexandra 4 4.49 2021 Project Hail Mary
author: Andy Weir
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves:
review:

]]> A Sorceress Comes to Call 195790847 A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic

Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.

After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.]]> 327 T. Kingfisher 1250244072 Alexandra 4 4.06 2024 A Sorceress Comes to Call
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Our Infinite Fates 210395729 They've loved each other in a thousand lifetimes. They've killed each other in every one.

Evelyn remembers all her past lives. She also remembers that in every single one, she’s been murdered before her eighteenth birthday by Arden, a supernatural being whose soul―and survival―is tethered to hers.

The problem is that she’s quite fond of the life she’s in now, and her little sister needs her for bone marrow transplants in order to stay alive. If Evelyn wants to save her sister, she’ll have to:

1. Find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life―before they find her first.
2. Figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse.
3. Try not to fall in love.

The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue meets This is How You Lose The Time War in this fantastical love story that defies death as two souls reincarnate through the centuries.]]> 352 Laura Steven 1250333881 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 3.76 2025 Our Infinite Fates
author: Laura Steven
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> Junie 212806648 A young girl must face a life-altering decision after awakening her sister’s ghost, navigating truths about love, friendship, and power as the Civil War looms.

Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie.

When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act—one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests� coachman, and their friendship soon becomes something more. Yet as long-held truths begin to crumble, she realizes Bellereine is harboring dark and horrifying secrets that can no longer be ignored.

With time ticking down, Junie begins to push against the harsh current that has controlled her entire life. As she grapples with an increasingly unfamiliar world in which she has little control, she is forced to ask herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?]]> 368 Erin Crosby Eckstine 0593725115 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.21 2025 Junie
author: Erin Crosby Eckstine
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> Witchcraft for Wayward Girls 207611566 There’s power in a book�

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master� (NPR).]]> 482 Grady Hendrix 0593548981 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.00 2025 Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Road of Bones (The Ashen, #1)]]> 211826907 A woman on the run. A crew of Viking mercenaries. A forbidden romance. And the secret which threatens them all.

Silla Nordvig is running for her life.

The Queen of Íseldur has sent warriors to bring Silla to Sunnavík, where death awaits her. When her father is killed, his last words set Silla on a perilous travel the treacherous Road of Bones–a thousand-mile stretch haunted by warbands, creatures of darkness, and a mysterious murderer–and go to Kopa, where a shield-house awaits her.

After barely surviving the first stretch of road, a desperate Silla sneaks into a supply wagon belonging to the notorious Bloodaxe Crew. To make it to Kopa, she must win over Axe Eyes, the brooding leader of the Crew, while avoiding the Wolf, his distractingly handsome right-hand man. But the queen’s ruthless assassin has other plans and hunts Silla obsessively.

Will Silla make it safely to Kopa? Or will she fall prey to the perils of the Road of Bones?

Featuring an immersive world blending fairy tale with Vikings, The Road of Bones leads you on an adrenaline-fueled chase with fun banter and a slow-building enemies to lovers romance. The first book in the Ashen Series, you are one click away from reading it!]]> 560 Demi Winters 0593975618 Alexandra 5 4.27 2023 The Road of Bones (The Ashen, #1)
author: Demi Winters
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Atmosphere 220858074 AN EPIC NOVEL SET AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF THE 1980S SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAMME ABOUT THE EXTRAORDINARY LENGTHS WE GO TO LIVE AND LOVE BEYOND OUR LIMITS.

In the summer of 1980, astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin begins training to be an astronaut at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond; mission specialists John Griffin and Lydia Danes; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer. As the new astronauts prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined and begins to question everything she believes about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love � this time among the stars.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1804941263 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.69 2025 Atmosphere
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> Kill Creatures 218006857 From the bestselling author of Wilder Girls and queen of twisty narratives, Rory Power, comes her highly anticipated new Young Adult thriller.

Last summer, Nan's three best friends disappeared into Saltcedar Canyon.

She's spent the year since grieving their loss and avoiding questions about what happened that night. Now, on the anniversary, she's ready to say goodbye, and so are the girls' families, who have reconvened to hold a memorial. But their vigil is interrupted by the shocking return of one of the missing girls alive. Everybody is overjoyed. Everybody, that is, except Nan, who was pretty sure they were dead.

After all, she's the one who killed them.

Atmospheric, fast-paced and vividly realised, Kill Creatures is a bookabout secrets, jealousy, violence and revenge. Perfect for fans ofA Good Girls Guide to Murder and Gone Girl.

Reviews for Wilder Girls :

'Your new favourite book' Cosmopolitan

'Wholly original and compelling' Observer

'A staggering gut punch of a book' Kirkus

Rory Power lives in Rhode Island. She has an MA in prose fiction from the University of East Anglia, and is the New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls, Burn Our Bodies Down, and In a Garden Burning Gold.]]> Rory Power 0702341649 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.08 2025 Kill Creatures
author: Rory Power
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

]]> The Hollow and the Haunted 205762626 In this darkly magical, romantic YA fantasy debut, a closeted teenage psychic in small-town Washington foresees the death of his sworn enemy, and is forced to work with him to save his life. Sparks fly, but the dead are restless, and some ghosts don't want to stay buried...

Perfect for fans of The Raven Cycle, Cemetery Boys and Sixteen Souls.

Sixteen-year-old Miles Warren hails from a long line of psychics. Resigned to a life in the (not especially profitable) family business, Miles is perfectly happy, thank you very much―except for the part where he's constantly exhausted from long nights digging up graves, hiding his sexuality from his family, and unable to fulfil his dream of going to art school one day. Perfectly happy.

But Miles' comfortable routine is interrupted when has a premonition of a violent supernatural murder. He soon discovers that the victim is none other than Gabriel Hawthorne, whose family have a mysterious, decades-long feud with Miles' own. Gabriel is everything Miles expects from a Hawthorne―rude, snobbish, and irritatingly good-looking―but Miles isn't just going to stand by and let someone murder him. The two form an uneasy alliance, trying to solve Gabriel's murder and prevent it from taking place.

The odds are against them; death premonitions are notoriously hard to alter. As they uncover secrets about their families' feud and dark magic swirls around the pair, Miles is horrified to realize that he doesn't hate Gabriel as much as he's supposed to. He might even like him.

Too bad Gabriel is almost certainly going to die.]]> 384 Camilla Raines 1803369973 Alexandra 0 to-read, 2024-releases 4.18 2024 The Hollow and the Haunted
author: Camilla Raines
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: to-read, 2024-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)]]> 32758901 "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.� Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.]]> 144 Martha Wells Alexandra 4 4.11 2017 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves:
review:

]]> Tress of the Emerald Sea 63068384 #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us deeper into the Cosmere universe with a rollicking, riveting tale that will appeal to fans of The Princess Bride.

The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?]]> 369 Brandon Sanderson 1250899656 Alexandra 3 2023-releases 4.27 2023 Tress of the Emerald Sea
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/07
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: 2023-releases
review:

]]> Not for the Faint of Heart 203578791
‘You aren’t merry,� said Clem to her captor. ‘And you aren’t all men. So there’s been some marketing confusion somewhere along the line.�

Mariel, a newly blooded and perpetually grumpy captain of the Merry Men, is desperate to live up to the legacy of her grandfather, the legendary Robin Hood. Clem, a too-perky backwoods healer known for her new-fangled cures, just wants to help people.

When Mariel's ramshackle band of bandits kidnap Clem as retribution for her guardian helping the Sheriff of Nottingham, all seems to be going (sort of) to plan � until Jack Hartley, Mariel’s father and Commander of the Merry Men, is captured in a deadly ambush. Determined to prove herself, Mariel sets out to get him back � with her annoyingly cheerful kidnappee in tow.

But the wood is at war. Many believe the Merry Men are no longer on the right side of history. Watching Clem tend the party’s wounds and crack relentlessly terrible jokes, Mariel begins to doubt the noble cause to which she has devoted her life. As the two of them grow closer, forced by circumstances to share a single horse and bed, one thing is clear. They must prepare to fight for their lives and for those of everyone they’ve sworn to protect.

Lex Croucher's Not For the Faint of Heart is a thrilling adventure full of hijinks, found family, and romance destined to change the lives of the inhabitants of the Greenwood Forest forever.]]> 400 Lex Croucher 1250847230 Alexandra 3 2024-releases 3.92 2024 Not for the Faint of Heart
author: Lex Croucher
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves: 2024-releases
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)]]> 58416952 At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

The Catenan Republic � the Hierarchy � may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus � what they call Will � to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.]]> 639 James Islington 1982141190 Alexandra 0 to-read 4.60 2023 The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)
author: James Islington
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Girls Made of Snow and Glass 32768509 Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber in this feminist fantasy reimagining of the Snow White fairytale.

Sixteen-year-old Mina is motherless, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.

Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.

Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.]]> 375 Melissa Bashardoust 1250077737 Alexandra 3 3.76 2017 Girls Made of Snow and Glass
author: Melissa Bashardoust
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/02
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Love and Other Conspiracies 202468452 The hardest thing for a paranormal conspiracy theorist and a web series producer to believe in is finding love in this swoony debut romantic comedy.

Hallie Barrett's life has imploded after she's dumped by her hotshot ex, who also happens to be her coworker and the star of the online series she was producing. Without a new show to present for the company competition, she’ll be out of a job. But inspiration can come from the strangest places . . . like the most handsome guy she’s ever seen passionately discussing Bigfoot on a late-night docuseries.

Hayden Hargrove made a name for himself as a cryptid expert on his hit podcast, and is intrigued by the plucky, blue-haired producer who offers him the opportunity to lead his own web show. When the production team sees that Hayden’s solo on-screen presence is bad enough to make a ghost blanch, Hallie jumps on camera too, hitting him (and his cryptids) with a healthy dose of skepticism—and enough chemistry to electrify their show to the top of the competition.

As Hayden and Hallie investigate the unknown, they unearth feelings for each other that shake their beliefs to the core. In their search for Mothman, aliens, and the truth, the most elusive discovery might just be learning to love again.]]> 368 Mallory Marlowe 059364008X Alexandra 0 to-read, 2024-releases 3.93 2024 Love and Other Conspiracies
author: Mallory Marlowe
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: to-read, 2024-releases
review:

]]> Dustborn 53968529 Delta of Dead River sets out to rescue her family from a ruthless dictator rising to power in the Wastes and discovers a secret that will reshape her world in thispostapocalyptic Western mashup for fans ofMad Max andGunslinger Girl.

Delta of Dead River has alwaysbeen toldto hide her back, where a map is branded onher skin to a rumored paradise called the Verdant. Ina wasteland plagued by dust squalls, geomagnetic storms, and solar flares, many would kill for it—even if no one can read it. So when raiders sent by a man knownas the General attack her village, Delta suspectshe issearching for her.

Delta sets out to rescue her family but quickly learns thatin the Wastes no one can be trusted—perhaps not even her childhood friend, Asher, who has been missing for nearly a decade. If Delta can trust Asher, she just might decode the map and trade evidence of the Verdant to the General for her family. What Delta doesn’t count on is what waits at the Verdant: a long-forgotten secret that will shake the foundation of her entire world.
]]> 432 Erin Bowman 0358244439 Alexandra 1 3.78 2021 Dustborn
author: Erin Bowman
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 1
read at: 2024/11/26
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cruel Winter with You (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #1)]]> 220389458 New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.

All newly minted pediatrician Jamie Malek wants is to borrow a roasting pan for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately, that requires her to interact with Marc—her best friend’s troublemaking brother, who’s now a tech billionaire. He’s the one who got away. She’s the one who broke his heart. Outside, a howling blizzard. Inside, a crackling fire. Suddenly, being snowbound with the man she never expected to see again might not be such a bad way to spend a winter’s night.

Ali Hazelwood’s Cruel Winter with You is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.]]> 73 Ali Hazelwood 1662528396 Alexandra 5 3.68 2024 Cruel Winter with You (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #1)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Alexandra
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/26
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle]]> 15807679 240 Avi 0545477115 Alexandra 4 4.03 1990 The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
author: Avi
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[An Impossible Impostor (Veronica Speedwell, #7)]]> 58065804 While investigating a man claiming to be the long-lost heir to a noble family, Veronica Speedwell gets the surprise of her life in this new adventure from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

London, 1889. Veronica Speedwell and her natural historian beau Stoker are summoned by Sir Hugo Montgomerie, head of Special Branch. He has a personal request on behalf of his goddaughter, Euphemia Hathaway. After years of traveling the world, her eldest brother, Jonathan, heir to Hathaway Hall, was believed to have been killed in the catastrophic eruption of Krakatoa a few years before.

But now a man matching Jonathan's description and carrying his possessions has arrived at Hathaway Hall with no memory of his identity or where he has been. Could this man truly be Jonathan, back from the dead? Or is he a devious impostor, determined to gain ownership over the family's most valuable possessions--a legendary parure of priceless Rajasthani jewels? It's a delicate situation, and Veronica is Sir Hugo's only hope.

Veronica and Stoker agree to go to Hathaway Hall to covertly investigate the mysterious amnesiac. Veronica is soon shocked to find herself face-to-face with a ghost from her past. To help Sir Hugo discover the truth, she must open doors to her own history that she long believed to be shut for good.]]> 325 Deanna Raybourn 0593197291 Alexandra 2 4.02 2022 An Impossible Impostor (Veronica Speedwell, #7)
author: Deanna Raybourn
name: Alexandra
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/25
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves:
review:

]]>